Jessica O. Matthews, 29

Uncharted Play, Founder and CEO

Since she was “old enough to spell tinker,” Jessica O. Matthews dreamed of becoming an inventor. Inspiration struck when the power went out at a cousin’s wedding she was attending in Nigeria. Her relatives turned on a smoke-belching diesel generator that made her feel ill. So, as a Harvard freshman, she developed a clean technology that turns the energy generated by kicking around a soccer ball into a few watts of power—enough to light a lamp.

In 2011 Matthews founded Uncharted Play—which moved its headquarters from TriBeCa to Harlem last year—to commercialize that idea. Armed with a Harvard M.B.A. and 10 U.S. patents, she raised $7 million in Series A financing in 2016. This year she is ready to take her biggest step yet. She said her company will set up a pilot micropower project in central Nigeria to convert the kinetic energy generated by traffic—as vehicles go over speed bumps, for example—into electricity.

Matthews plans to expand sales across Africa next year through Uncharted’s investors. Like her, many of them belong to the Smart Africa Alliance, a partnership of companies and governments aimed at supporting entrepreneurship that leads to environmentally sustainable economic development.

“In many parts of Africa, when the sun goes down, work must stop,” she said. “Our partners want solutions, and they are willing to take risks.”

Correction: Jessica Matthews founded Uncharted Play in 2011. The year was misstated in an earlier version of this profile.